AARON Hughes has hailed Northern Ireland team-mate Steven Davis as one of the best midfielders in the Premiership on current form.

AARON Hughes has hailed Northern Ireland team-mate Steven Davis as one of the best midfielders in the Premiership on current form.

Davis went into Sunday's derby with praise ringing in his ears from both David O'Leary, who called him "simply outstanding", and Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez, who described him as an up-and-coming Frank Lampard.

Now his international skipper has jumped on the bandwagon.

Davis - an ever-present this season - was instrumental in the win at St Andrew's.

The 20-year-old Ballymena-born player was a driving force for an hour in the centre of the park but really caught the eye in the final 20 minutes with a series of surging runs - one of which carved out an excellent chance for Juan Pablo Angel which the Colombian failed to take.

Hughes, who himself pulled off a couple of magnificent blocks in the latter stages of the game, believes Davis is living up to all the hype.

He said: "Steven was outstanding - as always. He's turning out to be one of the best midfielders in the country.

"I knew when I came here that he was a promising player.

"I'd seen that from the few times we'd been in the international squad together. But he's taken his game on to another level and the way he's developing is great to see - both for his club and his country.

"He's showing everyone he can perform that role really well.

He's going to be a great boost to our team for a long time.

"His performance on Sunday was very mature for such a young player.

"Hopefully he can keep developing at this rate."

Hughes believes the fact that the Blues hoodoo has now ended can only serve to propel Villa up the league.

He says the key to victory was solid graft from every team member.

"It was a good win for more than one reason,'' he explained.

"It's always nice to win your derbies, but it was important to get a few more points on the board.

"We knew it was a must-win game and I think that's how we approached it.

"We showed we could get stuck in and that's what it's like sometimes on derby days. It's all about rolling your sleeves up and we did that."

Hughes joined in the rest of his team-mates in acclaiming goal hero Kevin Phillips, but believes a solid defence laid the foundations for the long-overdue win.

"Kev scored a great goal and it was a good move for the goal," he said, "but we defended very well as a team too, so we all did our jobs."